Hanukkah

What actually happens

Lighting the hanukkiah — one candle on night one, plus the shamash, adding one each night. Dreidel — a four-sided top, and a game whose Hebrew letters spell out the miracle.

• 01Lighting the hanukkiah — one candle on night one, plus the shamash, adding one each night.
• 02Dreidel — a four-sided top, and a game whose Hebrew letters spell out the miracle.
• 03Gelt — coins, originally real, now almost always chocolate.
• 04Public lightings — communal menorahs in squares and outside government buildings.

Sound of the crowd

Ma'oz Tzur after the lighting, then a repertoire that runs from liturgical to 'Oh Chanukah'. Israeli radio plays a dedicated Hanukkah playlist for the whole eight days.

How it survived

The events are recorded in the Books of Maccabees, in Josephus, and in the Talmud's tractate Shabbat. The custom of placing lights in the window is medieval; the tradition of giving gifts is nineteenth-century and largely a response to Christmas.